by Eric Warren
She pulled the canvas bag off her back and set it underneath the desk, stowing her gun inside as well. Why didn’t they care she was armed? She considered placing the drives in the freezer but didn’t want to have to grab them in a hurry. Plus, the freezer wasn’t nearly cold enough to retain their full charge and they were only losing point-zero-one percent per hour. If what Jill had told her about them was accurate anyway. Even if she was here for a few days it wouldn’t affect their yield. That was, if she could use them at all.
She made her way around the bed and opened the closet. It certainly looked like clothes her size, though most were in drab black or gray. And there wasn’t a lot of variation. In fact, it looked like a version of what Hudson wore, only slightly less formal. Fewer pockets and places for insignia. Maybe everyone down here wore these.
On the other side of the closet was another door she thought had been part of the closet itself, but instead led to a washroom. Inside the room was completely tiled, with a sink, a toilet, and a full shower. It was spacious, but not extravagant. It struck her just how easy it would be to get comfortable here. All the food she could want, all her needs taken care of…it was a mini paradise. If only the people running it weren’t completely terrible.
She reached over and tapped the area above her ear. “Abrams, do you read?” She hoped he would pick up on the hint.
“Abrams here,” Frees’ familiar voice responded.
“I wanted to thank you again and to let you know they’re treating me very well. I’ve been given my own room which is furnished with food and conveniences.” She didn’t want him worrying if she was rotting in some cell somewhere. At least that way he could search while she played her particular part.
“I’ve very glad to hear that, Ms. Barnes. If you need anything from me contact me anytime. I’m stationed on the third floor. Gamma sector.”
Perfect. “Thank you again, F—Abrams.” She cut the comm. She wasn’t sure which floor she was on, or even how many this place had, but from looking at the hangar bay back there it could very well be fifty or more. Who knew how deep these humans had dug. And they’d been here this entire time. Her first order of business was to learn as much about this place as possible. In order to affect an adequate yield with the explosives.
There might be a good chance she could get out of this unscathed. If she could just keep playing along. They already seemed to know her entire history, and perhaps they were stupid enough to bring her right back in. They knew nothing about what she had done at Cadre HQ when she killed those humans in the tanks, or that she had killed Sy. Otherwise she doubted her welcome would be quite so…generous. Sy must have lied about that too—telling her she shouldn’t have killed those humans and the colony would never accept her back inside after what she’d done. She had just been trying to make herself indispensable, given the unlikely event Arista managed to overpower her and put her in a tenuous situation.
Checkmate Sy.
Arista took another look at the bathroom. Perhaps the first order of business wasn’t to learn, but instead take a long, hot, shower.
Thirteen
Arista pressed her palm to the panel beside the door and it slid open soundlessly. She stepped into the hallway to find Hudson still standing beside her door. “Do you ever take a break?” she asked.
He smiled. “Sometimes. Do you feel rejuvenated? I hope you found the accommodations acceptable.”
They were freaking amazing.
“Yes, thank you,” she said, keeping her voice even. She didn’t want to let on just how much she’d enjoyed the room. She’d decided to leave the energy drives inside; if she was going to play this part she needed to go all-in. She couldn’t act like she had anything to hide and she couldn’t keep a random bag on her person at all times. It would invite inquiry where she didn’t need it. Hudson had said this was her room, so it would make sense she would leave her things inside, despite the pang it gave her stomach to have them so far away.
The shower had made all the difference in the world. Arista stepped out feeling fresher, more alert and more awake than she had in weeks. The shower in Jill’s house hadn’t always worked well and the water pressure had been sub-par. She missed her old apartment but had never returned because the Peacekeepers would assume she’d eventually return to her home. Until they could change all the Peacekeepers, her apartment had been off-limits.
Though…now that the humans were eliminating them one by one she could probably go back again.
Arista couldn’t allow herself to get distracted. After the shower she’d raided the fridge again, indulging in some Brussel sprouts, then some mashed sweet potato and she finished it off with a slice of carrot cake she found in the hidden pantry under the stove. Never had anything tasted so delectable. Maybe they were trying to make her overindulge, to endear her to this place. Or them. She wasn’t sure which.
But neither would work, she’d put her old clothes back on, they didn’t smell the greatest and she’d kept the metal sleeve on her arm. It felt safer keeping it there despite not needing it anymore. Frees’ work had long since healed up.
“I assume you are ready for debrief?” Hudson asked.
She nodded in reply, forcing a smile. It was showtime.
Hudson tapped above his ear—good to know they still used the same kind of comms here. “She’s ready.” He nodded once to himself then turned to her. “Please follow me, we will meet them in the conference room.”
Arista fell into step behind him. A few people passed down the hall. They hurried past with fleeting glances to Arista. She realized she had no idea what time it was here, she was still on Chicago time. But depending on which part of the world they were under, it could be any time of day. She hadn’t seen any clocks since arriving.
Hudson led her out of the red sector, which she learned was on level nine, Pi after seeing a sign she’d missed on the way in. The place seemed like a labyrinth of never-ending corridors, all of which looked nearly identical except for the accents on the walls which told you which section you were in. Never had she wanted the Device back so badly, so she could at least build a mental map of this place.
They traversed three more corridors and took an elevator up six levels to fifteen, Omega sector. The accents on these walls were all black, which Arista assumed meant they were close to or even inside the hub of the colony. Where all the most important people were. Hudson led her to another set of large doors and when he put his hand on the control pad, they slid open to reveal McCulluh, Echo, and Jessika all standing around a large conference table. As soon as they spotted Arista Jessika shut her mouth and walked to the far side of the room, taking a seat away from the others.
McCulluh grimaced and Echo gave her a curt smile, indicating she should take a seat.
“Hudson, wait outside please,” Echo said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Hudson turned and exited back through, the doors sliding closed behind him.
“You’re looking better,” Echo said. “Our showers contain various nutrients for your skin and hair mixed with the water. It’s good for your long-term health. You probably feel better than you have in a long time.”
Arista nodded, realizing she was expected to express gratitude. “I do, thank you. Everything is…very nice. More than I expected.”
“I’m glad to hear,” Echo said. “Now. Let’s get down to business. I’ve asked Jansen here to join us in the event you do happen to remember something. If not, that’s alright, we will address that later. But we want to get as much information as possible. As you may have noticed, things are happening out there.” She consulted a holographic display that had appeared on the desk in front of her. “Who is this Abrams person? One of yours?” she asked McCulluh.
“Low-level who got lucky,” McCulluh said. “He wasn’t tasked with finding her.”
“Well,” she said, leveling her gaze with Arista. “We’re glad he did. Though I’m surprised you didn’t come through with Forsythia. Did something happen out there?�
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Okay. She could do this. She just needed to keep her story straight. “You’re right, Forsythia was supposed to bring me in. But we got…separated. When I returned there was no trace of her. I don’t know where she went.”
“And how did you get separated?” Echo asked, her gaze flitting between Arista and her notes.
“She asked me if I would be willing to eliminate Hogo-sha. Like I had done with Charlie. She said it would be an easy job, then we would return to the colony together. I went to Japan by myself and when I returned, she was gone.”
“Yes,” Echo said, consulting the hologram. She shot McCulluh a look. “I’m sorry to inform you your mission to destroy Hogo-sha wasn’t …authorized.” Arista had a hard time keeping her face straight. “Not that you did anything wrong, you had no way of knowing,” Echo continued, attempting to put her at ease. “There was some disagreement and apparently a miscommunication.” She shot McCulluh another look.
“She got the job done, I’m satisfied,” McCulluh said, crossing his arms.
“So that’s what happened? You destroyed Hogo-sha?” Echo asked, her eyebrows raised.
Arista nodded. “Sy—Forsythia gave me her weapon, the one that breaks people apart? I don’t know the name of it. But I used that on the AI. He’s been destroyed.”
“See?” McCulluh said. “Everything worked out fine.”
“Thank you, Jansen.” Echo studied the hologram for a moment and Arista couldn’t help her gaze from wandering over to Jessika. What was she doing here? The woman looked away as soon as she caught Arista’s eye. She pulled something small out of her pocket and twirled it in her fingers, like drummer might twirl his drumstick. Though it wasn’t quite as long. She couldn’t get a good read on it from so far away.
“And you still have no memory of before your time with the machines?” Echo asked, regaining Arista’s attention.
“Trust me, I wish I did. Everything for me starts in a field in Alabama.” She wanted to have her questions answered. What if she didn’t get another chance? What if they learned all they needed to learn from her and then sent her down into the prison. She still wasn’t convinced this all wasn’t part of some elaborate ploy. “Why was I left?” she asked. “Sy told me I lived here, so why was I left there?”
Echo’s eyes flicked to Jessika then back again. “It was an accident. There was a fire on your ship.”
“So why didn’t you come back for me? Why leave me out there for sixteen years?”
Echo screwed up her face. “To be completely straight, we couldn’t find you. And we couldn’t risk sending out large search parties to get you while the Cadre was keeping such a close watch. We thought you were dead. But now you’ve done some amazing work eliminating them…the tables have turned.”
Arista slumped back in her chair. That was it? Was there nothing more? Sy had said the same thing, her parents had died in that accident. Had that been the only thing she’d told the truth about?
“Tell us about your arm,” Echo said. “Forsythia’s reports seemed to indicate you were only missing your right hand. Not the arm itself.”
“Oh,” Arista said, looking down at the appendage. “It happened when I was in Japan. I fought with some Peacekeepers over there. Or what passed for Peacekeepers anyway. They injured me.” She wasn’t about to tell them Sy had done this to her, not if they didn’t already know. Sy’s betrayal was not something she needed to reveal, because then they might question if Sy disappeared on her own or if Arista had something to do with it. Better to just lie and avoid the whole issue.
“Does it hurt? Do we need to help you?” Echo asked.
Arista shook her head. “Nope, it was a clean cut. And this sleeve is helping to heal me.” She pulled the sleeve of her shirt up, revealing the flexible metal sleeve beneath.
“An ambulon,” Jessika said. All three of them turned to face her. “Where did you find that?”
“It was in a hospital. In Japan. An abandoned human hospital.”
She looked as if she was going to say something else, but instead sat back again and resumed twirling her stick.
Echo brushed her hair back behind her ears revealing a long scar that ran from the base of her neck up the side of her face and disappearing underneath her hairline. “The machine known as Frees, he is still in Japan?”
Arista nodded. That meant Sy’s last communication to them had been before she’d attacked Frees and Shin in the tower. That was good, it made Arista’s story more plausible.
“Have you had any more contact with him?” she asked.
“No, he became upset because we were destroying more machines. He abandoned me out there. Left me to do it on my own.”
“Just like a machine,” McCulluh said under his breath.
“We’ll keep an eye out for him, it shouldn’t be too difficult given his appearance,” Echo said. “In the meantime, I think that is all we have for now.” She glanced at her companions. “Do you have anything else to add?”
Arista flashed a glance at McCulluh. “What is going to happen to me?”
Echo tapped the table and the holographic display disappeared. “Undetermined at the moment. It depends on if you get your memories back. Mrs. Thorne?” Jessika stood up, pocketing the long stick. “Would you please escort Arista down to research?”
“Why, what’s in research?” Arista asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.
“I want them to double-check your injury. Make sure there aren’t any infections or something the sleeve may have missed. We have some amazing medical advancements here, I think you’ll be surprised.” She turned to Jessika. “Get her back up to speed. Report to me immediately if anything jogs her memory.”
Jessika nodded, not taking her eyes off Arista.
“After you’re done down there you’re free to return to your room,” Echo said. “We’ll schedule another debrief for tomorrow. See if you haven’t made any progress. But don’t get me wrong. We don’t want to rush it. Hopefully being here will jog your missing memories.”
McCulluh and Echo made their way around the table, exiting without saying another word. Arista stood, watching them go.
“Please follow me,” Jessika said, her voice soft. “Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of you.”
Fourteen
“Alert! Gamma Sector. Prepare for inspection!”
Frees sat up. Inspection? What kind of inspection? The announcement had come through the loudspeaker embedded in his wall. The one that seemed to give random bits of information to him every fifteen minutes since he got down here.
It had taken him nearly thirty minutes to find the barracks, this place was like a giant maze. But after stopping and asking three different people he finally managed to find it. The humans weren’t so bad when they didn’t know you were a machine. And so far, it seemed that his disguise was holding.
As soon as he’d reached level three he’d been accosted by a female guard just inside the entryway who’d demanded his name and rank. Unfortunately, not knowing his rank Frees had only provided his alter-ego’s name in hopes she’d allow him to pass. She’d required a thumbprint scan as the officer that had stopped them had. Frees had wanted to search the facility for Arista’s parents but figured it would be better to wait for a more-opportune moment. McCulluh had ordered him back here and he didn’t want some automated system telling him he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. It was better to understand this place and its routines before he began snooping around and got himself thrown in jail like Arista.
Except she hadn’t been thrown in jail. He’d received a personal comm from her only a few hours ago telling him she was alright and it seemed like they had set her up in a cozy place. Better than his own quarters, which the female guard had needed to direct him to. He complained he’d been hit on the head a few times and things were just a bit fuzzy. The guard hadn’t seemed to care about Frees’ personal problems.
So Frees had settled into his small quarters. It wasn’t much mor
e than a bed with a couple of amenities; a bookshelf lined with nothing but pieces of plastic and junk—Byron wasn’t a big reader—and a desk and chair combo. No window and the door couldn’t be locked from the inside, only the outside. He wondered if all the barracks were like this. Though, it could be worse, he could have to share it with someone else.
The door to his room flew open, startling Frees and he stood as two guards entered.
“Abrams,” one said. Frees nodded. He hoped he wasn’t supposed to salute. The guard behind the one that had spoken to him had a giant smile on his face, until his eyes met Frees’.
“Holy shit, Byron. What the hell happened to your face?” he said. Frees recognized him. His name was Lyman Quick, his bunk was one door down from Frees’. Frees had taken the time to learn the crew manifest on the interface in his room.
The first guard who had begun inspecting Frees’ bookshelf turned to face Lyman. “What’s wrong with his face?”
“It’s all jacked up. Did you get hit by a truck or did you beat yourself with an ugly stick?” Lyman said, the smile still playing across his lips.
“I was in some altercations. I had to abort and come back early,” Frees replied.
“Yeah. I know. We all know. You found her! You’re gonna be famous, man!” Lyman barreled his way past the first guard, who only looked annoyed, and wrapped Frees in a hug.
Frees recoiled, knowing he shouldn’t but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t used to people touching him.
“What’s wrong?” Lyman said, letting go. “You feelin’ okay?”
“I’m just…out of sorts,” Frees replied. “It’s been a long day.”
“You’re tellin’ me. I just got back from London. Man, they are doin’ some damage over there, let me tell ya!”
Frees perked up. Lyman had been assigned to attack Trymian? What else did he know?
“Everything seems in order here,” the first guard said, checking under Frees’ mattress. “Sorry for the intrusion but we have to check. Make sure no one is bringing any of the machine tech back with them.”
